It's been a long time since I've posted to the blog here in long-form writing, but it's time to start again and catch everyone up. I'd like to start with a post I made on facebook, reflecting on turning 45 yesterday:
I also don't post much on facebook these years (this was my first in a long time), and most of my contacts there are family and friends from my 20s and early 30s, with a few new friends and colleagues sprinkled in. I have been much more active on twitter the last decade - https://twitter.com/PlavchanPeter - but I've also been tailing off there as well the past year. I'm not sure where I will journey next in the social media landscape.
As I reflect on my 45th birthday, I am a father of a 9 year old son and twin two year old sons, a husband for 12.5 years, share our beloved 13 year old dog Oliver, a one year old bearded dragon Sunny, and a pair of water frogs we acquired from my wife's work at the start of the pandemic 3 years ago. 2.5 years ago we bought a house for the second time and I earned tenure at a top research institution that is growing, young and innovative. I get to do for a living what I love as a professor of physics and astronomy, a career I've arguably dedicated my entire adult life to achieving. I lived my first 18 years mostly in upstate NY, my second 18 years in Los Angeles, and I'm halfway through my third 18 year stanza in Fairfax, Virginia.
Woah, I’ve been a dad for 20% of my life; nuts. Lincoln loves swimming, and being on a baseball team. He exudes confidence in school and life (must be from his mother!). Theo is clearly our sports child even at two years old swinging a bat, shooting a basketball, kicking a soccer ball, throwing a football, and even almost swimming. Lincoln never showed that kind of sports interest at his age, but did for other things like guitar and violin. In other ways, Theo is a mini-Lincoln, and Theo adores his older brother. Grant is built like me, and it's clear he's going to the biggest of our three children; he is so chock full of energy he cannot sit still, loves vehicles and buses and the color yellow. I enjoy watching them grow up, as Lincoln shares almost exactly the same age gap (6 years, 10 months) between himself and the twins as I did with my younger brother (differing only by 4 days).
I'm decidedly middle-aged, but I don't feel it in my head. While 45, I have a very young family to raise. My body on the other hand is definitely starting to show signs of aging, and I know I am no longer in my prime. Advil is more of a go-to after a home maintenance or yard day of work. I continue to live with my heart condition and defibrillator and associated anxiety, my “sword of damocles” reminder that life is short and to be cherished. My heart is also heavy from the loss of my mother to cancer a year ago. I’ve started placing a greater emphasis on steering away from negativity in my life, and renewed interest in being healthier, talking to a nutritionist regularly and my preferred exercise in the form of home maintenance projects, yard work, bike riding, and walking to our community pool.
Professionally, I’ve accomplished much. I am the Director of our Observatories at Mason, led a pending NASA PIONEERS mission proposal, started re-spinning up a reinvented mission concept, co-led a NSF INCLUDES pilot study proposal that was selectable for funding, continue to lead a large research team (~10-15 students) and a large observatory team of ~10 students. I was also recently elected as governance chair of the 300+ faculty in the College of Science, after serving as a deputy (chair pro team and secretary) the past three years. I am reminded of my mom in this role, who served as the head nurse of the 400 nurses in her medical group towards the end of her career; I know she would be proud of this, and I take service to my institution seriously as much as my time can permit.
I have a large number of impactful science papers I really, really wish I had more time to finish (this summer?). Research grant funding has unfortunately trailed off, and I blame the pandemic and caregiving impacts on my productivity there, but I am planning a comeback and making long-term investments. I do have a Congressional Community Project pending if Congress passes it as part of an annual budget (a big if this year!). If funded, I will lead the establishment of a Center for Space Exploration at George Mason. AND, I was a Co-I on a related large University strategic investment proposal to do a large STEM workforce development project in the college of science focused on making research more equitable and accessible to students.
In terms of outreach, I coordinate a talk series in partnership with the Smithsonian Associates ( last fall we looked at the private space industry revolution and this year we are doing a Solar System grand tour: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/solar-system-earth ), started a summer astronomy research internship program for high school students that had 50 students enroll last year and a similar number this summer ( https://schar.gmu.edu/programs/executive-education/five-week-young-astro-scholars-internship-astronomy-data-analysis-and ). I’m also starting a space camp for middle school students in partnership with the Pearl Project Institute at our Interstellar Dreams Space Center ( https://science.gmu.edu/spacecenter ). Last year I also co-“launched” George Mason’s first annual Space Day which was a huge success with over 1400 registrations, and we’re planning the second, bigger and better event ( https://science.gmu.edu/spaceday ). I give more talks and coordinate more events than I can keep track of. I've gotten to share a stage with two astronauts, one in person, and one via zoom whom I've also met in person (incredibly humbling!).
So, I have a lot to be proud of professionally. One of my PhD students defended this spring, and two more will have advanced to candidacy by the end of the month, with two more remaining in my group. It’s a good thing I’m down to 4 PhD students, two in their final stages, from a high of seven! My research group is much more manageable than it was 3 years ago. I do take pride in supporting our students, staff and faculty equitably and being an asset to my institution.
So, onwards. Papers to write, programs to lead, life to enjoy, a family to raise. With all this going on, I really haven’t had any downtime to watch TV shows or movies or read books outside of work for fun (with the exception of Ted Lasso and anything Star Wars). I’m fairly ok with that, but it would be nice to continue a slow smooth landing professionally over the next few decades. That will mean I will have to prioritize, frankly something I’m terrible at with so much I want to do and accomplish.
I still day dream about a few grand challenges in physics I’d like to spend time thinking about, and find more time to write and work on my writing regarding these thoughts. Now’s the time! For example, I completely and creatively reinvented our intro astronomy lecture course this past semester - it’d make for a great new textbook. I’ve got a few paper ideas waiting to be explored. If my mission proposal gets selected, that will occupy the next 5+ years of my career. That’s all professional, but I also plan to spend more time with my children, and even teaching Lincoln more science and math now that he’s 9 and I can better connect with him. I have to shed more of the bullshit in life to make more time for all of these things that matter.
Personally, someday it’d be nice to have a boat to take out on all the waterways here in the DC region, a camper, and eventually maybe a second home at the Jersey shore (rising sea levels make that the most impractical). I day dream about a major future home renovation to this house too (add a new master over over our garage, a front/side/back deck, and new siding and 1st floor windows), but none of that will really be financially viable for 5-10+ years. Financially, life has been rough making ends meet raising three children and managing debts from years of infertility past. Note, I have zero regrets incurring these debts - they were well worth it to have the full family we are now incredibly fortunate to have, when so many other families who struggle with infertility are not nearly as fortunate as we have been; the consequences are just that these other dreams will be deferred. I’m also grateful we qualified to buy a home at an ideal time at an amazing interest rate, and we’ve benefited a lot from that (our net worth is a little less negative than it would be otherwise!), with no intentions of moving any time soon.
Over the past 2.5 years, I renovated the flooring for most of our first floor, installing hardwood, knocked down a wall b/t the kitchen and dining area, and renovated our kitchen entirely to give my wife her dream kitchen, (well, I’m almost done, one row of cabinets, some trim and caulk and backsplash tiles left). I personally built a backyard fence when we moved in, and turned our overgrown brush and trees area into a proper backyard with grass growing throughout, playhouses (plural!) and a sandbox and climbing dome I built too. I became handy out of necessity. The children love the backyard, and it brings me such joy to see them use the yard. It's my little piece of heaven. Some smaller home renovations also await to our three bathrooms, and our bonus room that could easily be converted to a fourth bedroom with the addition of a door and closet. And I’d like to build a shed in the backyard too...
Ok, that’s enough reminiscing on my 45th! I could go on for pages... and I don't have an easy way to bring this to closure, because my story isn't done yet.
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